The weekend is here!

Hoby woke me at 4am this morning. The cold comes up through the floor and he wakes up and craves the warmth of my bed. So much for the $50 sheepskin mat I bought him last week. So, I caved in and let him up, he nestled himself next to me, full length, his little chin resting on my stomach.

I woke at 8.30am giving up my yoga class in exchange for a morning of reading instead. I’m currently reading a book by Gerard Hindmarsh about his swamp home. Mum also gave me Wendyl Nissen’s book called Domestic Goddess on a Budget so I read a few pages of that too.

The horses stayed in the ‘pen’ overnight in anticipation of the storm that weather predictors warned up about. It hasn’t arrived yet.

The chooks were happy to be fed, horses too. Little Jack is sitting on eggs and is quite animated at the moment, her broody clucks and tail fanned out give her a ‘don’t mess with me’ aire. 

I completed the normal Saturday ritual. Put on a load of washing, fed everyone and let the horses out onto the driveway to graze. The tasks of picking up poo and cutting gorse are two of my favourites and I say that without any sarcasm. Both are things that require zero thinking, my body goes into autopilot and for a while I am completely relaxed. Weird isn’t it?

So, Tarka is usually the culprit for tucking himself into obscure parts of the property out of sight of Ella which sends Ella into a panic but this morning it was Ella that decided to squeeze between the fence and washing line which had a full load of clean clothes hanging on it. She decided about half way along that perhaps she’d misjudged the move and then I held my breath (and took a photo) as she completed and equine three point turn through my washing.

The sky was blue this morning, I was so surprised to see this. By the afternoon it was raining a bit. I retreated to my neighbour’s house to return her chicken that had taken a wrong turn and ended up very vulnerable with four roosters eyeing her up. The worst thing was that she’s blind in one eye, the chook not the neighbour and tumbled off the bank and rolled to the bottom and into the drain. I had to hand deliver her home rather than convince her with frantic arm gestures and stompy feet. So at least and hour was spent having a chat and cup of tea and cuddle of her dogs. 

Sam and I tried, and failed, to repair the trailer. The axel seems to be too long and no matter what wheels we try they always extend too far outside the guards of the trailer, shortening the axel will be our only choice.

I sanded the little macrocarpa shelf for above the bench top. It is coming up great, I love the gnarly knots and hollows, there’s still a lot of sanding left to do on the shelf, table, bench-tops and breakfast bar before I can varnish them, it seems like a never ending task and a dusty one too.